THE NEW YORKER, JANUARY 13, 2014
7
Now Playing
Ain't Misbehavin'
Almost twenty years after his last
political documentary, the director
Marcel Ophüls ("The Sorrow and
the Pity"), now eighty-six, delivers
a self-portrait that ranges from the
harshly self-revealing to the cheerfully
self-promoting. Along the way, he
o ers lightning- lash illuminations
o the fault lines o history and art at
which he has had the equivocal fortune
to live. His father, Max Ophüls, one
o the supreme classic-era directors,
and a Jew, was on the Nazis' enemies
list, and Marcel delivers a child's-eye
view o the family's terri ied wan-
derings through occupied France.
Their arrival in Hollywood, in 1941,
gives rise to memorable thumbnail
portraits o Bertolt Brecht, Marlene
Dietrich, Otto Preminger, and Preston
Sturges, as well as to such intriguing
byways as his father's unrealized
ilm with Greta Garbo. Appearing
onscreen, the engaging, vulnerable
raconteur unfolds past controversies
and meets friends he made along
the way (including Jeanne Moreau
and Frederick Wiseman). But the
concluding dance o high spirits is
shadowed by confessions o his suicide
attempts and his violence toward his
wife, Regine. Having devoted his
career to getting the guilty to face
the facts, he forces himsel to do the
same, publicly.---Richard Brody (Film
Society o Lincoln Center; Jan. 8.)
August: Osage County
The director John Wells's adaptation
o Tracy Letts's play sits awkwardly
on the screen. Set in Pawhuska,
Oklahoma, in 2007, the main body
o the movie takes place after Beverly
Weston (Sam Shepard), a onetime
poet and full-time alcoholic, has
committed suicide. His widow,
Violet Weston (Meryl Streep), a
malevolent and witty pill-head,
zonked hal the time but devastat-
ing when she's in focus, remains in
the house, triumphant that she has
survived her husband. Violet is joined
by her three daughters---an unhappy
cynic (Julia Roberts), a bland saint
(Julianne Nicholson), and a ditz
with dreadful taste in men (Juliette
Lewis)---and a variety o husbands
and children. The structural lines o
the play remain clear. Boy, are they
clear---virtually every scene cries,
"This is a play!" The characters are
boxed in by the ixed setting, by
closeups and reaction shots, and by
the inexorable pace o the editing;
Streep, hardening her voice, shout-
ing, and speaking some lines with
whacking emphasis, gives a rare bad
performance. Roberts is irst-rate as
the unhappy daughter who is horri-
ied to ind hersel turning into her
mother.---David Denby (1/6/14) (In
limited release.)
The Cheat
Cecil B. De Mille's viperish 1915
melodrama concerns a society
lady (Fannie Ward) who borrows
money from a Japanese roué (Ses-
sue Hayakawa) and promises to
repay him with sex. When she fails
to deliver, he takes revenge with a
hot branding iron; she shoots and
wounds him, resulting in a tabloid
scandal. De Mille's ethnic prejudice
is unambiguous. His stark technique
is short on psychology and lyricism,
and he seems interested mainly in
depravity and crowds---the movie
comes to life only when evil is done
and when large groups command
the screen. The swarm o swells
at a charity picnic suggests the
ethnically pure social order that
the Asian interloper disturbs, and a
climactic courtroom riot, in which
a mob's outburst overrides the law
and tilts the scales o justice, sets up
(doubtless unwittingly) a prototype
o Fascist cinema. Silent.---R.B.
(MOMA; Jan. 8.)
Her
Even by the standards o Spike
Jonze, this is an odd a air. It is set
in a future so near yet so subtly
transformed that it freaks you out;
the hazed-over brightness o the
color scheme is like a drug. Joaquin
Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, who
is close to a nobody. He lives alone;
his marriage to Catherine (Rooney
Mara) has wound down; his job is
to write heartfelt online letters for
customers whom he will never meet.
Into this void comes Samantha: less
than a person, because she is just an
operating system on his smartphone,
but more than most people, because
she knows everything, she serves our
hero's needs, and earns his love. (The
fact that her voice is provided by
Scarlett Johansson makes her more
indispensable still.) The question is,
can she love him back, or might she
start to crave a higher consciousness?
You could see Jonze's ilm and ind it
charming, even tender, then see it again
and come away darkly disturbed by
the shape o things---or minds more
potent than mere things---to come.
Philosophers should be kept busy for
years.---Anthony Lane (12/23 & 30/13)
(In wide release.)
The Invisible Woman
The forty- ive-year-old Charles Dick-
ens (Ralph Fiennes), miserable with
his wife, Catherine, who has grown
heavy and dull, slowly but steadily
persuades an eighteen-year-old ac-
tress, Ellen Ternan (Felicity Jones),
to become his mistress. The movie,
which Fiennes also directed, is based
on Claire Tomalin's 1991 book about
the a air. In this telling---which has
a strong feminist thrust---Ternan is
an intellectual young woman who,
in another era, might have been a
literature professor (she became a
teacher). Fiennes and the screen-
writer, Abi Morgan, have mounted
an accurate re-creation o Victorian
England, but the a air isn't much
o a story---at least, not as realized
here. What is the nature o Dickens's
attraction to Ellen? Does he idealize
her, as he did several young women
in his iction? Or has he fallen into
the obsessive sexual need o a man
in middle age?---D.D. (1/6/14) (In
limited release.)
Lone Survivor
The director Peter Berg's exciting
and harrowing re-creation o an
actual operation that took place
in Afghanistan, in 2005. The story
involves four members o a Navy
SEAL team (played by Mark Wahl-
berg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, and
Emile Hirsch) who get cut o in
Taliban territory and continue to
ight, in a treacherously rocky terrain,
against a horde o enemy warriors
and despite multiple wounds. The
heart o the movie is combat---in
particular, a long sequence that Berg
ilms with great attention to spatial
organization (he clearly places the
soldiers in relation to one another as
they ire) and with great attention
to blood and su ering, too.---D.D.
(1/6/14) (In limited release.)
Ruthless
Edgar G. Ulmer's 1948 melodrama
centers on a glutton for wealth,
pleasure, and power: H. Woodru
Vendig (Zachary Scott), a mighty
Wall Street raider who donates his
fortune to his political foundation
and invites his victims to the teem-
ing ceremony. Facing them as i
staring into the mirror o his blank
conscience, he recalls his predatory
rise. In lashbacks, Vendig uses
shameless cunning and sexual allure
to climb from a poor and embit-
tered childhood to Harvard, a job
at a brokerage, and a dirty inancial
coup. Along the way, he leaves a
trail o blood and heartbreak and
loses his irst and best friend, Vic
Lambdin (Louis Hayward), a guest
at the ceremony and the escort o a
mysterious woman (Diana Lynn) who
stirs up old dreams and new desires.
Ulmer's approach is monumental
and detailed, baroquely gestural and
coldly violent. His fascination with
the dialectical turmoil o inance and
the electrical charge o lust leads to
terrifying tableaux o degradation---
most notably that o an imperious
rival (Sydney Greenstreet). The
result is a grim comeuppance that,
by current standards, seems almost
Bolshevik.---R.B. (Film Society o
Lincoln Center; Jan. 11.)
Saving Mr. Banks
For twenty years, Walt Disney (Tom
Hanks) has fought for the rights to
the "Mary Poppins" stories, only to
bump into the immovable object o
P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson), their
creator. Now, at last, she is lured to
Hollywood, much concerned at the
fate o her characters on their journey
to the screen. The light comedy o her
Opening
Cold Comes the Night
In this thriller, a motel owner
(Alice Eve) and her daughter
(Ursula Parker) are held captive
by a criminal (Bryan Cranston).
Directed by Tze Chun. Opening
Jan. 10. (In limited release.)
The Legend of Hercules
An action film, directed by Renny
Harlin, starring Kellan Lutz as the
mythical Greek hero. Opening
Jan. 10. (In wide release.)
The Truth About Emanuel
A thriller directed by Francesca
Gregorini, in which a young
woman (Kaya Scodelario) suspects
that a neighbor (Jessica Biel)
is the reincarnation of her late
mother. Opening Jan. 10. (In
limited release.)
Revivals and Festivals
Titles in bold are reviewed.
Film Forum
W. Houston St. west of Sixth Ave.
(212-727-8110)---In revival. Jan. 8-16
at 1, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, and 9:40: "Il
Sorpasso" (1962, Dino Risi).
Film Society of Lincoln
Center
Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln
Center (212-875-5610)---Through
Jan. 23: New York Jewish Film
Festival. Jan. 8 at 12:30 and 6:
"Ain't Misbehavin'. " • Jan. 11
at 9: "The Congress" (2013, Ari
Folman). • Jan. 12 at 9: “Anatomy
of a Murder" (1959, Otto
Preminger). • Jan. 13 at 8:15: “The
Man with the Golden Arm" (1955,
Preminger). • The films of
Edgar G. Ulmer. Jan. 10 at 6:30:
“The Light Ahead” (1939). •
Jan. 10 at 9: "The Naked
Dawn” (1955). • Jan. 11 at 1:15:
"Ruthless." • Jan. 11 at 4: “Murder
Is My Beat" (1955).
French Institute Alliance
Française
55 E. 59th St. (212-355-6160)---
"Remastered and Restored:
Treasures of French Cinema." Jan.
14 at 4 and 7:30: "Purple Noon"
(1960, René Clément), introduced
by the writer Marc Levy.
Museum of Modern Art
Roy and Niuta Titus Theatres, 11
W. 53rd St. (212-708-9480)---"An
Auteurist History of Film." Jan.
8-10: "Another Sky" (1954, Gavin
Lambert). • “The Aesthetics of
Shadow, Part 1: Japan." All films
are silent. Jan. 8 at 4: "The Mark
of Zorro” (1920, Fred Niblo). • Jan.
8at7: "TheCheat." •Jan.9at
4 and Jan. 10 at 7: "Crossroads"
(1928, Teinosuke Kinugasa). • Jan.
11 at 1:30: "Docks of New York"
(1928, Josef von Sternberg). • Jan.
11 at 4: "First Steps Ashore" (1932,
Yasujiro Shimazu).
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria (718-
784-0077)---"First Look." Jan. 10 at
7: "Little Feet" (2013, Alexandre
Rockwell). • Jan. 11 at 2: “Rohmer
in Paris" (2013, Richard Misek),
showing with "The Bakery Girl
of Monceau" (1963, Eric Rohmer),
presented by its editor, Jackie
Raynal. • Jan. 11 at 4:15: “The
Inner Jungle" (2013, Juan Barrero;
in Spanish). • Jan. 12 at 8: “The
Summer of Flying Fish" (2013,
Marcela Said; in Spanish). • Jan. 19
at 4: "Natan" (2013, David Cairns
and Paul Duane), introduced by
Duane. • Jan. 19 at 6:30: “The
Rendez-Vous of Déjà Vu" (2013,
Antonin Peretjatko; in French),
introduced by the director.